Tag: Summerland

James Beard Award–winning chef and restaurateur Anne Quatrano—mastermind of Star Provisions and the Michelin-starred Bacchanalia—is ready to reveal her next project: a fine-dining breakfast and lunch restaurant called Summerland.

At 58, she's at an age when many of us would start slowing down. Instead, Quatrano owns and runs Star Provisions and its sandwich shop; Floataway Cafe; and W.H. Stiles Fish Camp. “There is a lot of overthinking of food now, and I’m not interested in that.”

When I was growing up in Connecticut, we called this “stuffing.” In the South, it is “dressing.” regardless of semantics, this is a comforting, classic Thanksgiving favorite. It is very close to my grandmother’s recipe, although she (like so many of our mothers and grandmothers!) used Pepperidge Farm stuffing and doctored it up some.

To brine or not to brine—that is the Thanksgiving question. Though some people believe that it negatively affects the texture of the bird, I am a faithful briner. I feel that the application of salt enhances the flavor of the meat and helps keep it moist during cooking. A simple overnight brine of 1 cup salt to 1 gallon cold water is all you need.

Here are two techniques for making gravy (with a roux or with a slurry), and each has its staunch defenders. If the gravy is cooked long enough without being allowed to burn, both methods create a rich and delicious gravy without any residual taste of uncooked flour.